Critic Nina_Metz writes: “Bridgerton” and the new “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story” sidestep a glaring reality: The significant links to slavery among Britain’s wealthy and elite.
with the Queen: ‘I supplicate your Majesty’s compassion for millions of my African countrymen, who groan under the lash of tyranny in the West Indies.’That doesn’t feel like a win for anything, representation or otherwise, no matter how smoothly “Queen Charlotte” avoids this inconvenient truth about its title character.
The slave trade was abolished in 1807 during King George’s reign. And yet the exploitation didn’t end there. The blood money had already been amassed into fortunes and palatial estates, and many of Britain’s wealthiest still maintained plantations in the Caribbean that profited from enslaved labor.The truth is ugly.
Consider a moment early on when Charlotte first arrives from Germany. The king’s mother gives her a once over and insists on inspecting her teeth. It’s a subtle allusion to the way enslaved people were assessed at auction. Is the subtext intentional? Maybe. But the show has nothing to say about it — Charlotte is disturbed but seems entirely unaware of the implications — and it’s gone in a flash.
“Bridgerton” and “Queen Charlotte” exist as crinoline-lined fantasies. And yet neither shy away from other unpleasant realities, including the ways in which women lacked full agency over their lives in this period. “Shonda Rhimes is very comfortable talking about gender inequality,” said Cornell’s Warner. Nor does “Queen Charlotte” avoid staging a number of barbaric mental health “treatments” inflicted upon King George.
“But at the same time, you can never remove yourself from this conversation. And when you do, bad things happen.”
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